That was the message given by Matt Snyder, president of the OLA at Wednesday evening’s annual spring meeting of the group at Cicero-North Syracuse High School. He was referring to the 3,233 members of the Oneida Lake Association and everyone else who loves to fish the lake or cares about its economy.

Snyder told the crowd of more than 200 in the school’s auditorium that he had secured promises from Democratic Reps. Daniel Maffei, Michael Arcuri and Rep. Bill Owens (the three congressmen whose districts border the lake), along with U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., to work toward getting funding restored for cormorant harassment next year on the lake.

The OLA president repeatedly emphasized the best thing anyone can do is to write or call their federal lawmakers, emphasizing the need to restore the $625,000 program.

Martin Lowney, state director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Services, said Wednesday the program was a proven success, generating some 1,450 jobs and $50 million to the local economy.

Cormorants eat, on average, a pound of fish a day, and cover their nesting areas with layers of feces that can kill most plant life. During the mid-1990s the perch and walleye population on the lake was devastated by the birds, prompting the start of the harassment program.

In the past, the annual appropriation for the program was handled by Rep. James Walsh, a Republican. This past budget year, neither Maffei (Walsh’s successor) or any of the other two Democratic congressmen stepped forward to make things happen. A lot of finger pointing resulted, but Snyder said it’s time to move on.

The birds are protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act. A letter read at the meeting from Dan Bishop, the DEC’s regional fisheries manager, raised the possibility of some kind of volunteer harassment effort this fall on the lake, contingent on approval from federal officials. However, nothing is certain.

Snyder and others emphasized this is no time for vigilantes — specifically, individuals taking upon themselves to shoot the federally protected migratory birds, or even to attempt destroying their nests on the lake’s islands.